N8sVFR

I know I promised an update today, but the weather was far too nice to be sitting at the computer!! Went for a ride today instead. I'll follow-up with the finished pics soon, and some additional information. Today was the first outing, and it worked like a charm!!

To start off, I wanted to share with you all my experiences since purchasing my full set of OEM luggage for my 6th gen last year from David Silver Spares. First off, those gents are top notch!! I ordered the full set of OEM hard cases to match my '02 Red VFR, the Honda liner bags, the Honda tank pad, the accessory pillion pad, as well as a couple of other little items. Everything arrived within about two weeks, and was in perfect condition. Plus, for all of that I think I paid around $1200. Couldn't beat it!! So, of course, the next step was getting everything installed on the bike. I put everything on and rode for about two weeks, and was loving it. I realized that I had used the wrong spacers under the grab handle mounts for the side cases, and took everything apart, installed the new spacers, and promptly stripped out the threads when re-installing the bolts. After the purchase of a new tap and die set, all was well with the world again. But, I kept being nagged by this recurring thought. . . .it sure would be nice to have lights under those reflectors in the top case!! And the search was on. After a couple of weeks of looking at the GIVI website at their lighting kit for the E460 (GIVI E460 Lighting kit) (which our factory luggage is supposedly fashioned after), as well as looking at the kits available from admorelighting.com for the E460 cases (Admorelighting E460 Kit), I realized that nothing that was commercially available was guaranteed to work. The GIVI kit will not work with our factory top cases, and the admorelighting.com kit only placed LED's in the wrap-around reflecters, and was questionable as far as fitment goes, at best. So, I decided to fabricate my own LED brake and turn signals to be installed behind each of the top and wrap around reflectors in the OEM top case. All of my research pointed towards LED's from superbrightleds.com (LED light strips). I figured that I would need five so I ordered 6 of the WFLS-R30 strips, for good measure. Each waterproof strip has 30 high-intensity red LED's and costs $13.95. You can cut the strips into segments of 3 LED's each (you'll see why this is important soon). Shortly after receiving the strips, I took apart the top case and started attaching the strips to the white pieces of thick paper behind the wrap-around reflectors and the thin plastic piece behind the center reflector. VFR OEM Trunk Lights 001.jpg As you can see, my first take on the arrangements of the LED's behind the center reflector was too sparse. When lit, they just didn't have the punch that I was looking for. VFR OEM Trunk Lights 006.jpg I also found that there was not enough room for the LED's behind the wrap-around reflectors. I used a 1" chisel to remove the small (about 1/32" thick) ribs that are behind the wrap around reflectors. This gave me just enough clearance for everything to fit snugly when the reflector and LED's were reinstalled. It took about an hour to get all of the ribs removed, but it was worth it. See below for how the top case looked after the rib removal. 2008 VFR OEM Trunk Lights Part 2 009.jpg A small hole (about 1/4" dia) needed to be drilled behind each of the wrap-around lights to allow the wiring the enter the case. This was one of my basic criteria - I wanted all of the wiring inside the case, to a single point that could be easily removed. I also drilled two small grooves on either side of the main holes to allow the tail of the LED strip room to turn into the case. 2008 VFR OEM Trunk Lights Part 2 011.jpg Another 1/4" dia hole was required to allow the wiring from the center LED to enter the case. 2008 VFR OEM Trunk Lights Part 2 013.jpg Here you can see what the LED banks ended up looking like. There was a fair amount of soldering involved for the center LED but the wrap-arounds were fairly straightforward. I also found that I had to cut relief slots into the plastic backer for the center LED in order to allow the whole assembly to settle down over the ribs that are formed into the top case behind the lens. If anyone is wondering, I used 18 ga stranded wire that I bought from Radio Shack. 2008 VFR OEM Trunk Lights Part 2 017.jpg 2008 VFR OEM Trunk Lights Part 2 016.jpg Since I wanted the entire assembly to be waterproof, I used clear silicone to cover the solder joints. The silicone I used was a GE product that you can pick up at any home improvement warehouse. 2008 VFR OEM Trunk Lights Part 2 021.jpg After getting all of the LED banks installed back into the OEM top case, I used more of the same silicone to seal the holes that I drilled to allow the wiring to enter the case. I wanted to be able to remove the LED's if necessary, so the silicone can be cut out and replaced in the future if removing the LED's becomes necesary. It was also time to create the wiring harness. One of the challenges that I faced was finding the right connectors for my specific application. I stumbled on the web site for Binder USA (Binder USA), which is a subsidiary of a German electrical component manufacturer. They had a lot of choices, and at the end of the day I purchased multiple snap-together sub-miniature waterproof connectors (series 620), a cordset with a metal waterproof connector (series 702), as well as surface mounted connector to be installed in the trunk (from series 712). I learned a lot about 'IP' ratings during my search and chose to go with minimum IP-67 since the connectors would potentially be exposed to wind-driven water if I happen to encounter a rain storm on any of my travels. 2008 VFR OEM Trunk Lights Part 2 028.jpg 2008 VFR OEM Trunk Lights Part 2 027.jpg 2008 VFR OEM Trunk Lights Part 2 026.jpg 2008 VFR OEM Trunk Lights Part 2 025.jpg After all of the fun bits arrived, I started assembling everything. First the surface mounted connector to the trunk. 2008 VFR OEM Trunk Lights Part 2 033.jpg 2008 VFR OEM Trunk Lights Part 2 034.jpg 2008 VFR OEM Trunk Lights Part 2 035.jpg 2008 VFR OEM Trunk Lights Part 2 036.jpg I used insulated bullet disconnects to allow the harness in the trunk to be separated from the wiring to each LED bank. All of the positive signals to each bank remain separate and the grounds all come together to a common ground. I used self-adhesive zip-tie mounts to attach the harness to the bottom of the OEM case underneath the stock foam rubber liner pad. I had to cut the pad to allow it to sit flat over the installed harness. 2008 VFR OEM Trunk Lights Part 2 038.jpg 2008 VFR OEM Trunk Lights Part 2 029.jpg 2008 VFR OEM Trunk Lights Part 2 030.jpg 2008 VFR OEM Trunk Lights Part 2 031.jpg 2008 VFR OEM Trunk Lights Part 2 039.jpg At this point, the trunk was essentially complete, and the controllers for the LED's remained. I chose to use the diode and resistor method for sending both a lower voltage parking signal and a turn signal to each of the wrap-around LEDs. I picked up the parking light signal from the front turn signal wires just behind the blue connector over the left radiator in the main wiring harness. I ran two new wires back to the tail end of the bike where all of the other wires taped into the existing signal wires for the brake, right and left turn signals, and ground wire. Below are pictures of the development of the controllers and the soldering of the connectors. 2008 VFR OEM Trunk Lights Part 2 022.jpg 2008 VFR OEM Trunk Lights Part 2 040.jpg 2008 VFR OEM Trunk Lights Part 2 041.jpg I'll finish the story tomorrow - it's getting late, and I just finished everything up today. Photos of the final installed lights and wiring have been taken and I'll post them up soon.